Search and Rescue (SAR)

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History

Search and Rescue (SAR) is a fairly broad topic. SAR goes back a long way in human history. Some people might broadly define search and rescue, and in that regard, it has always existed. There have been humans helping out other people in distress since the beginning of time. However, Search and Rescue (SAR) has not always been as organized as it is today in the UK or elsewhere. Any overview of the history of SAR and the types of SAR should concern itself with the way local resources have changed over the years.

Historically, most disasters were extremely dangerous. A local fire could manage to devastate an entire city quickly in a time period where there were no fire departments and where buildings were not made to withstand fires. In those cases, there might have been local soldiers who could have responded, but in most cases, people from the neighborhood would attempt to do so. They would have mixed success in a time period that did not have adequate medical care and in an era where people were not going to be trained in search and rescue techniques. Search and rescue techniques are modern, and many of them simply did not exist at different points in history.

Search and rescue operations of the sort that are known today really don’t go back much further than the twentieth century, in fact. Formalized governmental departments like a mail service really only go back to about the nineteenth century. Volunteer fire departments did start to become much more prominent throughout the nineteenth century. It took the creation of the modern nation-state in order to really get the sort of massive non-governmental organizations that were capable of carrying out search and rescue operations at the level of today. In many cases, this has managed to work out very well, and people have been able to make a huge difference just in the case of volunteer labor.

Some of these organizations are going to be staffed by some professionals when it comes to operational staff members. Others are going to be staffed by volunteers only. Some people are going to be interested in joining them in order to make a difference, and other people are going to contribute their own professional experience. Search and rescue volunteer organizations are going to work with professional or governmental emergency services in many cases today, and this is going to manage to strengthen those organizations. Most paid organizations or governmental departments are only going to have so many staff members and they are only going to be able to afford to have so much of a standing police force or task force. However, when supplemented by community support, it’s all much easier.

Search and Rescue Operations

Search and Rescue (SAR) is a protocol that specifically concerns itself with the people who are in some of the most extreme emergencies. There are actually several different search and rescue protocols in one, and this is going to make a big difference when it comes to whether or not people involved are going to be able to really succeed with the search and rescue operations. Today, there are lots of different procedures and safety protocols for saving people, and even in volunteer organizations, people are going to receive a great deal of training that is usually going to allow them to really succeed with their rescues.

Search and rescue operations can include fire rescues, saving people from the water, mountain rescues, flood relief efforts, combat search and rescue, urban search and rescue, air and sea rescue, and ground search and rescue. All of these different protocols and techniques can really make all the difference in the world when it comes to helping people get back to a safe place. None of these efforts are going to be completely successful all of the time, of course. There are usually going to be casualties in these sorts of operations, as terrible as it is. However, the search and rescue operations of various organizations will save tens of thousands of lives in many cases like this. In some situations, they might even be able to save millions of lives altogether.

Local Resources

In the United Kingdom, maritime search and rescue operations are going to be conducted and coordinated by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) in most cases. The UK Ministry of Defence to the Royal Air Force is usually going to handle the different aeronautical rescue operations. The police force will handle almost everything else on the ground, but there are also various search and rescue volunteer organizations that are going to provide the community support that police officers are going to need in some cases.

In the case of the United Kingdom, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force will usually supply some of the different pieces of equipment and some of the search and rescue vehicles that people are going to need in order to complete these sorts of organizations. There are search and rescue helicopters that are used in operations that are carried out by the different search and rescue local resources in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, organizations funded by tax dollars and by volunteer donations are going to work together in order to make sure that people have everything that they need during the most stressful times in a nation’s history.

In the United States, water emergencies are going to be handled by the United States Coast Guard and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. The United States is prepared for structural collapse with the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency. The United States Air Force is on hand in order to deal with different aeronautical problems and emergencies. There are fewer search and rescue volunteer organizations in the United States than there are in some other countries, and this is going to have an effect on local resources. Types of local resources will vary from culture to culture.